A child steps into a world enveloped in crimson light. She heard the steam her whistle the hissing of her organ.

Circus announcer teases: “Jolly Marge, the heaviest human being alive, is here! …and Tiny Timothy, the smallest man on earth!”

And she spied, at eye level, a big top golden light and a tiny rickety figure hanging far above the safety net. must have dreamed of

For 50 years, thousands of children (and adults too) have experienced the thrill of the circus as they wander through the Museum of Science and Industry’s exhibits on the art form.

For many it was like magic, for others it was like a nightmare scene from a bad horror movie. His remaining 20 or so items (including 10 handmade dioramas with mechanical action figures) were removed earlier this month to make way for new exhibits.

Traditional circuses like spinning phones and drive-in movies don’t have the charm they once did.

Kathleen McCarthy, Museum Collections Director and Head Curator, said: “Science and technology is a really fast-moving field, so this content is nostalgic.

As such, the museum’s collection is on the auction block, along with hundreds of circus-related items from around the world. Among them is the toolbox of Carl his Wallenda, the famous wirewalker who died in a fall in 1978. On the inside of the lid is written: your life depends on it. There are also countless circus posters and photographs of sideshow entertainers, including the “three-legged Italian marvel” Francesco Lentini.

The auction is set for September 24th at Potter & Potter Auctions at potterauctions.com.

Collection until the 1920s

However, the science museum’s collection is not drawn from an actual circus, which sets it apart from other items offered for auction. A miniature of his figure in the diorama and eight small vignettes of him were made by Chicago railroad worker Roland Weber in the 1920s.

Besides trapeze artists and lion tamers, there are also intimate everyday circus life scenes, such as vignettes of workers sitting on toilets and reading.

Little is known about Weber, McCarthy said, but his work was clearly “a labor of love.”

Weber began construction toward the end of the circus’ so-called golden age, which lasted from 1872 until 1929, when the Great Depression hit.

60 or 70 carriages with trapeze artists, horses, elephants, zebras and polar bears board trains as they meander through town before the circus begins its performance.

“It was literally a city of tents,” said Pete Schlake, an archivist at the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wisconsin, when he arrived.

Small towns were mostly closed when the circus came.

“The show will feature bareback riders from Saudi Arabia, ladder acts from China, and performers from Japan,” said Shrake.

Weber’s miniatures captured that excitement, and the Museum of Science and Industry recreated it when it first exhibited his work. The diorama was installed under the rotunda of the East His Pavilion in the early 1970s. A circus movie projected on a vertical screen.

“They wanted to make you feel like you were at the big top,” McCarthy said.

With a little imagination, you might even be able to smell elephant dung, fried food, and more.

“Inspire Passion”

In the early 1990s, the exhibit (now much smaller) was moved to its newest location. For some visitors, it felt out of place — almost an afterthought. On the way to her dazzling U-505 exhibit, the kids rushed through.

However, the disappearance of circus exhibits does not mean that the art form has disappeared.

The circus is smaller. They mostly travel by truck. They also struggled during the pandemic, Schreik said.

“It’s an evolving and changing art form. And when you look at it, it evokes passion,” he said. I will try not to become

Heidi Peters/Science Museum

Heidi Peters/Science Museum